


Coda

by china_shop



Category: White Collar
Genre: Episode Tag, Fic, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-02
Updated: 2011-03-02
Packaged: 2017-10-16 01:13:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/china_shop/pseuds/china_shop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This final scene was hers.</p><p>Episode tag for 2.13.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coda

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to dragonfly for beta. <3

June patted Neal's shoulder indulgently and let him guide her around the room to the nostalgic strains of the record player. He was a good dancer—no surprise there—and most solicitous. If June had been a few decades younger, she might have taken advantage, despite Ford and the lingering memory of Byron.

Especially since, as always, it galled her to be viewed as helpless and inept. She wanted to cast off her feigned grief and let the world see her, still strong, still magnificent and cunning, a phoenix brought back from December's dying ashes by the demands of Ford's scheme.

She'd been dwindling into respectable domesticity until he stepped over her threshold and the years fell away. "This kid you've found," he'd said with that mischievous gleam. "Is he good?"

June had shaken off the fog of memories, the ghost of Byron's proud smile, and arched her eyebrows at Ford, challenging his challenge. "Everyone says he's the best, but he's in danger of losing his taste for the life. How do you suggest we rope him in?"

In the end, she'd hardly needed to tug the strings at all to set Neal dancing. He was so sweetly earnest, this boy who dallied on both sides of the law, this friend; so ready to champion her in the face of Ford's supposed betrayal. Perhaps she should be ashamed to have forced him into the con, but they were all players here, and Neal had faced worse than Ganz while working for the FBI. And this was no time for confessions or apologies. That wasn't her role today.

This final scene was hers, necessary to keep suspicion from falling her way, and she'd see it through even though Neal had won in the end. She could hardly blame him for carrying out his part too well, so she fought down the damning truth, and showed him the face he expected to see: wistful, kindly, old.

The song swirled to a close, and she stood back, clasping her hands to her chest. "Thank you, my dear. And now I think I need to lie down for a while."

"Are you all right?" He bent his head, concerned.

"I will be." She took his arm and he escorted her to the door of her bed chamber.

"Let me know if you need anything," he said, and she nodded and patted his hand.

Alone at last, she took off her clothes and lay down in her slip to contemplate the last few days, but she was interrupted by a soft knock on the door. She sat up and called, "Come in."

It was her maid Julia, with an envelope. "Hand delivered."

June thanked her and waited for her to leave before tearing it open. There was a sheet of thin, crisp paper inside, scrawled with familiar handwriting. It was in their usual code, and she only took a few minutes to translate it.

> Tuneful June
> 
> We sure put on one hell of a show, didn't we? Sweet as apple pie, and I would have got away clean if that kid of yours weren't a hair too sharp. He switched out the cases behind my back – no doubt you've heard by now. I can just see old Byron wherever he is laughing so hard he bust a pipe.
> 
> I didn't try to cut the kid in. No chance he'd take his end with his nose in the air like that, and besides, I knew you wouldn't like it. He's probably hanging around, all puppy eyes and solace about now. You keep him dangling, won't you, but not too close.
> 
> So the game curdled and I'm out the door with a pocket full of nothing, but never you mind. Old guys like me always land in the hay, sooner or later. See you in M.C. in April, like we said.
> 
> You're still the best dancer I ever met.
> 
> Your  
>  Ford

June folded up the letter and tucked it into the hidden recess in the bottom of the carved headboard of her bed, where she kept her most secret treasures. With a smile on her face, she lay down to rest. She'd wait a few days, and then call her travel agent and book a ticket to Monte Carlo. April wasn't so very far away.


End file.
